Okami Review [Minor Spoilers]
Gameplay
For the gameplay analysis, I’m going to be comparing Okami with another game I love, Twilight Princess from the Legend of Zelda Series (any Zelda game is also fine though). Now some of you may think that is a bit unfair, and that Okami should be judged on its own merit, and to that I say
In all honesty though, even the director [Kamiya] himself said that the gameplay in Zelda games had a large influence in Okami’s game design. So, I think that it’s totally fair to see if he was able to successfully capture and innovate on the genre he claims to be inspired by.
The game is largely an action-adventure title, sprinkled with light RPG elements in between. Players proceed through a linear narrative set in a sprawling overworld where they can engage in side quests, dungeons, find hidden secrets, and all the other basic things you can think of that would be in a Zelda game.
What REALLY sets Okami apart from Twilight Princess is the celestial brush mechanic. The celestial brush allows the player to essentially freeze time by summon a canvas (which is a freeze-frame of the game), where they then are able to draw different brush techniques on the canvas to affect the game world. This mechanic is used to solve puzzles, fight in combat, mess around with innocent villagers, and general world traversal. You can think of the celestial brush as the items that are obtained throughout Link’s journey in Twilight Princess, except Okami’s celestial brush ties to the game’s setting far more effectively than the items in Twilight Princess. That is because in Twilight Princess, with the exception of the dungeon the item’s introduced in, there isn’t much else to experiment and have fun once you’re outside the dungeon, whereas in Okami, even the first technique you uncover in the game will be used extensively throughout the rest of the game, and that goes for all the other brush techniques.
Amaterasu sends his love to all the readers out there
The combat also works a bit differently than in Twilight Princess, while fights in Twilight Princess are more integrated within the game’s overworld. Okami’s fights are much more pronounced, spawning a demonic arena whenever Amaterasu engages in battle. Amaterasu uses the celestial brush, as well as 3 different types of weapons to battle foes. There’s an option to equip weapons either as your main weapon or sub-weapon, and you get different movesets depending on where you place them. You can even unlock new moves at dojos found throughout Nippon to increase the effectiveness of your attacks. At the end of each battle, yen (currency) is also rewarded to the player, with extra bonuses depending on how fast the player finished the fight and how much damage they had taken.
Who knew opening a pretty flower bud could look so painful
All of this combined really encourages the player to experiment with their options, which I find to be rather good and fun. However, I do want to point out that I find the game’s difficulty to be way too easy. While enemies do have weaknesses that require smart use of the celestial brush, once you figure out these weaknesses (and they not hard to figure out), you can more often than not brute force your way through a fight, since enemies deal far too little damage. In fact, throughout my entire playthrough of the game, I never even died once. Ultimately, I find this to be detrimental to the experimentation of the game’s combat system, since players have no real incentive to try and discover all the possible nuances that it has to offer, unless of course they are farming for yen, which again isn’t hard to do.
…..Or maybe I just don’t want to admit that I’m bad
Despite the game’s difficulty feeling a bit too casual however, I really found myself enjoying and appreciating the gameplay of Okami. There are a few other gripes I have such as the somewhat simplistic dungeon design and clunky platforming sections. But with the sheer number of things the game gets right, these are just minor things.
Graphics and Animation
The presentation of this game is easily the best aspect that this game has to offer, and in my opinion the art direction in this game is the best that I have seen in any game period. Inspired by the Japanese Sumi-e style of painting, which is a heavy lined art style mixed with simple and fluid brushstrokes. The game blends vibrant watercolor painting with clever use of cel-shading to create a breathtaking visual experience that you just can’t find anywhere else. Seriously, you can pause the game at any time, and what you see is good enough to pretty much be its own painting.
The entire game feels like your observing and interacting with an art piece, its brilliant use of colours help the game convey a wide variety of feelings through its visual presentation.
The animation is also very fluid and helps bring the Sumi-e art style to life. Characters move very expressively, and you can practically feel the environment breathing onto you as you move around the game world. However, the game is unfortunately locked at 30fps, a shame considering the potential boost in presentation and performance that the game could theoretically achieve if it ran at 60fps. Though it’s understandable considering that games built around that time were made specifically for 30fps and changing it to 60fps would cause serious issues.
Music
The game’s music comprises mainly of a mix of modern orchestral sounds and traditional Japanese instruments, creating a very Japanese folk-like sound experience whilst also incorporating musical elements from bombastic themes found in Hollywood action blockbusters and other games. This type of sound I find perfectly blends with the style of the game to give it a very unique and emotional experience. Also, I just happen to be a total sucker for traditional Japanese instruments, so that really helped me appreciate the music of Okami that much more.
The music itself also features seamless transitions in its instrumentation, with tracks often having multiple versions that evolve as you move from one area to another, thereby really giving the player a great sense of awe and wonder as they play the game. It’s no surprise that this soundtrack won best gaming soundtrack of the year in 2007. Overall just really great stuff that I highly recommend if you’re a fan of traditional Japanese music like I am.
To sum up my review, I found the story simplistic yet very enjoyable, though some uneven pacing issues and its slow opening can deter new players. Its characters are charming and humorous, and their designs, mannerisms, and dialogue are all very expressive. The gameplay while being very similar to a Zelda title, manages to tie its mechanics to its story, setting and characters far better than what Zelda games have to offer, though its casual difficulty did slightly hamper the overall potential of the combat system. The graphics and soundtrack are definitely the best aspects that this game has to offer and is what truly makes Okami stand out amongst other contemporaries made back in its time and even now.
Whew, it’s been a very long journey, and what a thrill it was.
So, despite the glorious praise that Okami received when it first came out. It ultimately received poor sales, which caused its makers Clover Studios to shut down. Does that mean that Okami will eventually be lost and forgotten? Forever fated to fade away for the rest of gaming history?
Nah, its been rereleased under almost every console that exists under the sun.
Since this review has been going on long enough, I’ll just quickly mention the systems Okami has been rereleased to, as well as some notable differences.
- Wii – You can now draw using the Wii-remote and Nunchuk. Yay no more sluggish analog sticks! Good luck with dodging in the right direction though.
- PS3 – The game now runs at 1080p AND it supports widescreen! Oh look you can also play it on PlayStation Move.
- PS4, XBOX ONE – We also added 4k, cause yay 4k
- PC – You can now play it with a KEYBOARD!!!
- Oh, and there’s also a switch version that’s coming in August, so now you can also play it on PORTABLE.
Really though, I’m so glad I picked this game back up, Okami truly is the most underrated masterpiece in gaming history, and it deserves every rerelease it gets. There simply is no other game quite like Okami, and there probably never will be ever again. So, its best that we treasure it as much as we can, and make sure that this precious game is never forgotten, cause this game does show
That games can truly be art.
Thanks for reading my review, I hope to see you all again soon!
